100 days: Day 35

21/01/2010

Terry and Tim’s Mobile Pleasure Theatre.

Terry’s defining feature had always been his sleek nimble fingers. He’d realised his unique gift on the school yard. What began as idle fidgeting soon began to attract attention, and then crowds. There was something about the way he could manipulate his hands that was unnatural, even spellbinding. It wasn’t that he was unnaturally quick or precise, it was something to do with the way he moved, it was kinetic, it had a liquid quality that one couldn’t hope to mimic or completely grasp. Generally speaking, upon witnessing, it evoked a strange feeling, one that the viewer couldn’t place, other than to agree that it was pleasurable; it kind of hit you in the stomach and made the back of your neck feel warm.

Terry would spend his playtimes giving command performances of ‘Church and Steeple’ and ‘that one where you pretend to pull your thumb off’ to the other children as they struggled to interpret their emotions.

Although a gift, Terry’s malleable digits did eventually become a burden. He progressed through puberty as problematically as any child, but unlike others he was in a constant state of distraction. Thinking about his hands, what could he do with his hands? Everyone else had stopped thinking about his hands, this was the problem. He’d learned to roll a coin over the top of them by this point, but it raised little more than a ‘ahh… oh right’ accompanied by a sincere but underwhelming smile from those whose attention he would have to request prior to the trick.

He didn’t fare well in his studies, he didn’t attempt to and once school was done he left the education system to go and work with his hands. Initially selling fruit and veg at a market stall.

He was good at it. He worked out a routine in which he would list various pieces of fruit whilst giving them the appearance of circulating on an invisible conveyor belt just in front of his chest, sounds a bit like juggling, but it wasn’t, it looked really impressive. It was this that caught Tim’s attention. Tim was a local entrepreneur who owned the stall opposite. They became friends, or at least that was Terry’s interpretation and when Tim offered up the thought, Terry wasn’t alarmed by the proposition of ‘sexing things up a bit’.

Within a month the two were in business and Terry and Tim’s Mobile Pleasure Theatre was born. Their one to one shows toured the length of the high-street as Terry’s enchanting fingers played out erotic dances for the small change of strangers. Tim provided an all too graphic soundtrack. Initially it paid for itself, kept Terry in manicures and fed and clothed the pair.

It was arthritis that put an end to it. Tim attempted to continue alone, but the soundtrack didn’t work on it’s own and only caused repulsion.